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Monday, August 18, 2014

A LITTLE LESS OO, A LITTLE MORE LALA, PLEASE

I wanted to like
Renee Swindle's A PINCH OF OOOLALA. I wanted to say at very page, as
I am doing with the novel I am currently reading, “Beautiful.”
Despite the title, which hints of cancan and fin-de-siecle hoopla,
this is a story of love and loss in which flippancy is very much out
of place. Billed as a satisfying tale of love, friendship and
family, it does include all these ingredients, along with a bakery
called Scratch where Abbey Lincoln Ross, visually stunning wedding
cakes.” This sounded promising and most readers hope that a new
book will live up to the promise of its blurbs. This one does not.

I found as
disappointing a cake that outlived its shelf life. Mind you, with
every new novel I read, I want to praise its author. Unfortunately,
I find it impossible in this case.

That does not mean
that A PINCH OF OO LALA will not be a commercial success. There have
been writers I found mediocre and who went on to sell movie rights
for their work to the likes of Julie Robertson. I am well aware that
every reader has a different definition of competent writing. Movie
makers probably think less about the music of the words than they do
about the music of the cash register.

Well, then, A PINCH
OOLALAH might yet make cash registers play symphonies all over the
country. It is hip, it is very much in the spirit of the age, it has a
main character whose career seems to be more more rewarding than
her love life. I confess that I know very little about the
universality of Abbey's plight. I do not think about target groups
and demographics as publishers must. I tend to focus on the way the
story is told. My problem with Abbey is that she never really
comes to life on the page. I know that she is owns a bakery, that
comes from a an unusual family, that she has very good friends and I
I know that she loves jazz. In fact, she uses her deep understanding
of jazz as a yardstick to measure the potential compatibility of a
prospective lover. Well and good. As someone who experienced betrayal
and pain, she is very cautious about opening her heart to a man. She
yearns to be part of a couple, to have children, to continue to
honor her own values. No doubt there is universality in all that. But
does it read well? I do not think so. I am not sure whether the
essential truth of this novel is that you cannot have your cake and
eat. I know this much about this story--its ingredients simply refuse
to blend.

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IN THEIR WORDS

"Would you not like to try all sorts of lives--one is so very small--but that is the satisfaction of writing--one can impersonate so many people. " Katherine Mansfield

AMBIGUOUS CHEKHOV

"I abide by a rule concerning reviews: I will never ask, neither in writing nor in person, that a word be put in about my book.... One feels cleaner this way. When someone asks that his book be reviewed he risks running up against a vulgarity offensive to authorial sensibilities.''

"Isolation in creative work is an onerous thing. Better to have negative criticism than nothing at all."

"Despite your best efforts, you could not invent a better police force for literature than criticism and the author’s own conscience."